Anyone running Windows Vista?

[djbr]

:rockon: Smells Like Geek Spirit.... :rockon:

:crackup:

I mess with computers since I was 10. When I was 12-14, people mocked me in school because I only talked about computers. Why do you think I am here?! :crackup:

That "addiction" faded. I just got tired of it. I still do some stuff from time to time to get some cash, but I do not work with this neither have any desire to. I now mess with computers like I mess with my car and any other thing that can be fixed.

 

[Call_Me_Daddy]

I am no expert on overclock, since most stuff I do is based on software and bios settings. My country is hot and it takes a great equipment to make it all cold enough. Plus, when I fix someone else's PC I prefer not to mess with things that may cause unstability, thus more returns.

Still, I played with it for some time, with a Duron 600MHz turned 800MHz that I had on a Asus A7V. These processors were easier to overclock as the multiplier were very easy to unlock, a pencil did the job. And the MB helped too. However, the one you have is famous for being a b1tch in this aspect.

Have you tried overclocking by FSB?

Yeah. But it doesn't go too high. Default is 133 and I can go up to 142. Any higher and the CPU crashes when I give it too much to crunch.

What is voltage good for? Why do I need to increase voltage when overclocking?

 

[OzyBoy]

i bought a copy of windows vista shortly after it came out, i ended up reinstalling xp because i kept getting the blue screen of death and it also kept randomly restarting. i think the problems might have something to do with my video card.

 

[djbr]

Yeah. But it doesn't go too high. Default is 133 and I can go up to 142. Any higher and the CPU crashes when I give it too much to crunch.

What is voltage good for? Why do I need to increase voltage when overclocking?

It's have been a loooong time since I last overclocked a PC. But I remember some things I used to do. I guess some things are out-of-date. No problem, as google gives plentiful info about this.

You increase voltage to strenghten the clock pulse, thus making you able to reach higher speeds. The downside is that higher voltages means more heat, so if you go too far you end up burning it.

Maybe (just maybe) you can go higher putting more voltage on the processor, but it's not guaranteed, as there are other things are play, such as PCI/AGP slots and RAM. You may need to configure BIOS settings to:

1) put more voltage on the RAM, thus getting it running in the same FSB frequency. It may burn too, so beware. You always go sensible, just like you do with your processor. Little by little. Do not go brutal all at once.
2) adjusting the RAM frequency (3/4 of 143MHz, for example, equals to 107,25MHz, which almost all recent RAM sticks support).
3) Cooling (processor and ram, pci cards) -- be sure to keep the heat on check, especially if you decide to increase the voltage. I used a pretty nice cooler on the processor and put a supplementary cooler on the front of the case, on the lower part. In my case I did not need to put heatsinks on the RAM sticks as some O/C freaks do, LOL.
4) PCI bus frequency -- the board sets it to 66MHz for stock FSBs. See if your board has alternative settings for overclocking, so you do not get too distant of this number.
5) Memory timings -- this is the CAS Latency, CAS/RAS delay, RAS Precharge, Cycle Time options on the BIOS. Not all have all of those. Some have none. The higher the timings the less performance, but it is better to put more MHz on the FSB and higher timings than less MHz and lower timings, unless you get a unstable system.
6) Chipset -- you may want to put a heatsink or a cooler on it, if it doesn't already have one. Some chipsets get very hot when you put it on a higher FSB.

When you mess with FSB settings, everything gets out of spec. It's not only the processor, the RAM sticks and all the extension slots work at a higher frequency. So you have to find out what is holding you back from increasing it even more. It's good to benchmark different configurations and see what reach maximum performance. I used to use SiSoft Sandra for this, but that was like 4 years ago when I used to mess with those things, so I do not know what is the hot benchmarking program for now.

Also, I have little contact with newer PCI Express boards, so I do not know if it has any special procedures to overclocking.

---what did I do on my personal today's system---
1) Turned off unused Windows XP Services (there are many guides on how-to)
2) Tweaked BIOS/memory settings to the optimal stock settings (CPU-Z is your friend... you access the SPD chip on your memory stick and get to know what are the maximum performance settings, and put it on the BIOS)
3) Turned off all caching on the BIOS (System BIOS Cache, Video BIOS Cache, all this old DOS stuff)
4) Installed the correct drivers (Chipset is one of the most neglected by info techs around here).

No overclocking. I want it rock solid. Plus, its performance does not bother me.

The only thing I still have to do but laziness hold me back is to put some thermal paste on the chipset heatsink. It's glued with stock double-sided tape which is not good for heat transfer. But as it's working fine and is rock solid, I am slacking this

Have fun!

 

[djbr]

Getting myself a new box, and it's coming pre-installed with Windows Vista. Did some searching on the net, and apparently it's a hunk of 5hit. Knowing me, I'll probably end up wiping the hard drive and installing Linux. Hell, maybe I'll just downgrade to OS/2 Warp

Linux is hell! :crackup:

I always try to use it and end up using Windows. I guess I am not as nerd as I think I am. :crackup:

I just want to post on the DJ forum.

 

[Call_Me_Daddy]

Thanks for the info.

But the thing with my PC is that the CPU is the weakest link. I have DDR 333 RAM and the FSB goes to only 266. So I wouldn't need to mess around with the RAM... would I?

Also, about the AGP slots and all that. I really don't care. This is a workstation PC. It has a Ti4600 in it on a nForce2 chipset. Not good for much except to play Unreal Tournament 2004 once in a blue moon and some cool 3D screensavers.

I just need this little CPU to go as high as it can. I don't care if it fries. I need to replace it anyway.

 

[djbr]

Thanks for the info.

But the thing with my PC is that the CPU is the weakest link. I have DDR 333 RAM and the FSB goes to only 266. So I wouldn't need to mess around with the RAM... would I?

Seems like you do not.

Also, about the AGP slots and all that. I really don't care. This is a workstation PC. It has a Ti4600 in it on a nForce2 chipset. Not good for much except to play Unreal Tournament 2004 once in a blue moon and some cool 3D screensavers.

They still play a part in stability.

I just need this little CPU to go as high as it can. I don't care if it fries. I need to replace it anyway.

I don't know if your board lets you set the voltage manually. If it does, try to amp it up just a little bit and crank 1MHz more than your current 142MHz. If it goes stable, try 143MHz, until you reach the new plateau. Be sure to get some program to check the processor temperature. Google it, there are many options.

You can do gradual voltage increases (thus, reacing more FSB frequencies) until:

1) it doesn't work anymore -- in this case, you revert back to the old settings and it may work fine (or not ). That's why you do it GRADUALLY, so you do not go cranking max voltage and burn the processor.

2) The temperature gets high enough -- in this case you can change your cooling parts, which *sometimes* lets you reach more overclocking. Note that you can reach the max potential without reaching a dangerous temperature range, as you can also reach the max temprature range, change the cooler, get lower temperatures, and still can't go further.

If you are only to squeeze some performance out of your equipment out of cheapness, I suggest not trying to go very high. FSB overclocks puts stress on all parts of the system. It has the downside of being more dangerous than just changing the multiplier, but it gets performance gains from all the components, such as the hard disk. You may achieve great enough results without going too high, making your system faster and also very stable.

 

[Abbott]

Thanks for the info.

But the thing with my PC is that the CPU is the weakest link. I have DDR 333 RAM and the FSB goes to only 266. So I wouldn't need to mess around with the RAM... would I?

No, it won't. You can always use faster RAM, provided it fits. That's why, for extreme overclockers, there's really fast RAM available. Corsair sells some DDR2-1142, though clearly no PC at stock settings uses anything higher than DDR2-800, as far as I know.

Otherwise, I strongly favor stability over over-clocking, so I couldn't tell you much. Largest over-clock I've ever done was PII-233 -> 250, with: 2.5 x 100FSB instead of 3.5 x 66FSB, on a board that supported 100FSB and PIII. I'm one of the few who only buys ECC RAM. I also favor Supermicro and Tyan, famous for stability, though terrible for over-clocking. Most of their boards are designed for servers, though they do make workstation/desktop boards as well. Tyan even makes boards that support SLI, clearly not a server feature.


About your reply to my previous post:

I agree that some bloat can, and should be cut, and it's possible to gain performance that way. But other bloat can't be cut. WordPerfect 12 uses more space and resources than WordPerfect 5.1. Windows XP uses more than 95, which used more than DOS/Win 3.0. Windows 98 was the last version of Windows that had a floppy disk version (instead of an Install CD). I know, I looked it up since I looked for a floppy disk version of XP, mainly just for fun. Also, you can't use a lot of newer software with 95 or even 98, so you have to upgrade. Microsoft recently shut off support for Windows 2000.

I also agree that you should fix instead of entirely replace, if it's possible. Thankfully, unlike cellphones, PCs aren't monolithic. Recently, someone I know had hard disk problems with her laptop (I did it for free, but only because she was a childhood friend and I knew her family. Besides, she's gotten fat in the past few years.). I had her replace the hard disk, since as far as I can tell the PC was otherwise fine and "good enough" (for what she wanted to do).

I may be slightly biased, since I sometimes like to do things that push the capabilities of a PC. For example, I like to run VMs a lot (VERY memory hungry, especially with multiple VMs).

But, I hate the serious corner cutting that takes place on $500-600 PCs sold by large companies. Once I saw a cost cutting measure that was truly obscene, and it's only gotten worse. I only buy name-brand parts, and on cooling, I won't buy water-cooling (truly overkill) but I otherwise spare no cost. I also like to make sure there's enough RAM so I can run the PC without a pagefile (virtual memory), which may increase the cost and spec slightly.

Anyway, is $1,750 really an unreasonable amount of money to spend on a PC? At least one thing I enjoy is that there's no question where it can run Vista comfortably, despite being assembled in May 2004 (only upgrades since then were replacing CD-RW with a DVD Burner and replacing a floppy drive with a floppy/flash reader).

 

[OzyBoy]

It's really easy and quick to install windows vista, click the following link for instructions. :crackup:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVbf9tOGwno&eurl

 

[Call_Me_Daddy]

It's really easy and quick to install windows vista, click the following link for instructions. :crackup:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVbf9tOGwno&eurl

LOL. If only it was that simple.

 

[Page]

I've been dual-booting Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE) and WinXP for some time now. I like Kubuntu. It has decent, current packages available and a fast release cycle (unlike Debian).

When people ask me about upgrading to vista, I recommend that they either stick with XP, get a mac, or try Kubuntu.

 

[djbr]

It's really easy and quick to install windows vista, click the following link for instructions. :crackup:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVbf9tOGwno&eurl

This guy got mad at that sh1t!

It must give a lot of headaches LOL!